Structural use of beer cans

Not really sure what to make of this. We’re having a built-in shower / wet room stripped out this week. It goes some way towards explaining some of the build quality, if the previous builder had put away the best part of a crate of Stella whilst on the job!

Whaaaaaat??!!

That’s class that is. Respect tot he builder on recycling the cans as insulation/sound deadening material. (They’re not still full by any chance?)

Those cans(second and fifth from the left) are very annoying.

I like it. I love finding signs of the old builders when doing renovation work. 19th century carpenters marks are probably better than Stella cans but it’s all interesting. Must remember to leave more of my own.

Beer cans are actually useful in engineering. I know for a fact there is bit of Tyskie can of the SS Great Britain prop lifting mechanism. Wasn’t put there by Brunel, though.

What’s the date on cans?

Are they full?

that is mad! Defo get back in & take a better photo though!

Only 2005. Empty!

Those cans(second and fifth from the left) are very annoying.

They need to be at either end……attention to detail is poor

I think after 13 cans of Stella I’d struggle to get anything in the correct order, let alone construct a bathroom.

That’s cool.
Knock down all the other walls and rip the floor up so we can see what else they’ve hidden 👍

More decorative than structural but this is worth a watch:

Or google the Can House Hartlepool if you just want a flavour.

When I was at Uni, we put an empty can, vertical, in the machine for crushing concrete test cubes. It’s basically a big vertical vice, with 20cm square jaws, exactly parallel. The can took half a ton before crushing, concertina style buckling all the way down.

On sea kayaking trips we have a competition with empty cans, set them up on a flat rock and drop another on them, aiming to get that same concentric buckling. I’ve only done a few perfect ones, usually the wind moves the can. It has a practical benefit as well, if you can get them perfect there are no sharp corners to cut the rubbish bag.

We’ve just had our loft conversion and found a couple of the obligatory jazz mags up there under the insolation!

My dad used to fit out bowling alleys, and always used to stick random things on the walls amongst all the Americana memorabilia. Like empty packets of regal king size, box of matches, can of coke or durex box.

we have a competition with empty cans, set them up on a flat rock and drop another on them, aiming to get that same concentric buckling

Just stand on the can and poke the sides in with your fingers.

A friend of mine once bought a building between two pubs that had once been a temperance hostel.

Every time he lifted a floor board he found beer bottles

Just stand on the can and poke the sides in with your fingers.

Then you just get 2 or 3 buckles in the height of the can, and an asymmetrical collapse, with bits of skin and blood.

A friend was doing up a 17c farmhouse in France and we came across a shoe hidden in a void in the wall.

We thought it a bit odd at the time. A few years later I found out that it wasn’t uncommon in 17th and 18th centuries right across Europe. Apparently it was an anti-witch thing.

Not sure Stella has any supernatural qualities though

In our last house I found some screwed up newspaper filling a gap between the staircase and wall. When I gently moistened and flattened it there were reports from the Crimean war and Victoria & Albert riding in a carriage up The Mall with Napoleon III.
So far in our current house, just an empty but pristine pack of Players No. 6.

Thinking of sending them as an extra in the next series of Endeavour.

I’ve found the standard mummified mouse in the loft. And some ‘niche needs’ literature in the loft of my first house. Very expensive at £10 a copy, back then. Something to do with M&S, iirc…
Apparently sealing dead cats into houses used to be a thing. Not sure if the U value of cats meets current building regs!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dried_cat

I was told by a naughty person who once clocked a car before he sold it that when he took the dials out, he found a scrap of paper in there with “oh no, not again” written on it. 🙂

On a more sombre note, Doug Nye tells the story that an incredibly rare Auto Union grand prix car was found in a remote Polish barn – when the restorer cleaned up the carbs, they found a star of David roughly scratched into one, they musedthat it may well be the last mark on earth of some poor sod on their way to an Auschwitz or a Belsen… 🙁

Plaster friend of mine used to leave very large cock and balls he made from the left over plaster under the floor boards….

Someone will get shock one day

Plaster friend of mine used to leave very large cock and balls he made from the left over plaster under the floor boards….

Mate of mine used to work in a Southampton yacht builders. They had one customer who supposedly bought their new yacht with the proceeds of selling off pension funds. Supposedly behind each panel was either graffiti alluding to the owners morals or newspaper cuttings.

Was in a house build years ago. The client was a bit of an arse. Moaning about every detail and either late or non payment.

The electrician rigged up an old Nokia behind the wall in the bedroom and took great pleasure in phoning the phone at all times of the day and night. I liked his style.